Scripting News

Ping: It's even worse than it appeared

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 12:15:04 GMT

Further examination of Apple's new social network reveals more problems.

1. It's awkward, at least, that it runs in iTunes and not a web browser. There's no Back button, no way to copy the address of a page and share it outside of iTunes. Also if it were just a website we'd be able to access it from an iPad now, not some time in the future.

2. There's no way to Like the song you're listening to. In other words there doesn't seem to be any integration with the music-listening app, even though the social network is embedded in it.

3. It's a ghost town. Obviously they're recommending all the musicians they have, because they have nothing to do with my musical interests. Same with users.

Now, onto this morning's revelation.

Chuck Shotton writes: "It seems that the only way for mere mortals to post something to the timeline is to buy a song, review an album, or commit some other act of commerce on the iTunes Store, which I certainly have never done.

"It's unfortunate, because the capability is there to do much more. I followed Cold Play as an experiment and they can post pics, songs, status updates, and all the stuff you'd expect to do with a Facebook-like social media tool.

"I'm baffled why Apple has this locked down for normal users. Someone there has to have seen the potential for this to totally upset the social media balance. But if they cripple it at the outset, that critical mass of users will never happen, IMO."

So Ping is not a social network, by any realistic definition of the term.

Update #1: My guess as to why we can't post to the timeline is that Apple is afraid we might say something harsh about them or Ping.

Update #2: Doc Searls nailed it on Steve Jobs's art, in 1997.

Ping first use

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 02:32:42 GMT

I've got iTunes 10 installed, and have signed up on Ping.

My handle is "scriptingnews." You're welcome to follow me.

To be clear, they didn't give me a choice of name. That's the name I chose when I got my first iPod or whatever got me logged into their store the first time. (I don't remember.) I never would have chosen to be scriptingnews on a social network. Not at all obvious how to change it, if I can.

Here are their first recommendations. They bear absolutely no resemblance to any music I listen to or people I know. Obviously this is very very early days for Ping.

One thing I don't like about Ping is that it isn't in my web browser. I keep looking for the Back button. I keep wanting to find a URL so I can publish a link somewhere else. I think this is a big lose. It's the only social network I've ever tried that isn't in the web. Right now I think that's a deal-stopper.

So I played one of my current favorites thinking there would be an easy gesture in the iTunes interface to tell my Ping followers that I like it. After all why bother integrating it with iTunes if there is no integration? Well, there's nothing in the right-click menu for pinging the song. No menus, nothing anywhere in the user interface. What the heck were they thinking?? Hello, anyone home at Apple??

Conclusion: There's nothing, at this time, to do in Ping.

OAuthcalypse didn't kill my apps

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 22:42:13 GMT

This is really puzzling.

The OAuthcalypse came and went, and the apps that it should have killed, the ones that use basic authentication, are still running.

Two examples: dwcodeupdates and friendsofdave.

The only explanation I've been able to come up with is that they made exceptions for these two accounts for some reason.

I felt I had to document this.

So, it is documented. Any theories welcome. (That aren't paranoid or paranormal.)

A social network for music called Ping

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 18:29:37 GMT

Ping is Apple's big announcement today. The one that they'll be adding new stuff onto for years and years. The other announcements are just continuations of threads they started long ago. This is a new thread.

They call it a social network "for music."

But it won't be "for music" for very long, if it even is just that at startup.

It'll be Apple's social network for PR.

It'll be Apple's social network for TV.

It'll be Apple's social network for developers.

It'll be Apple's social network for Steve Jobs.

All of Apple's stores will be on the network, so there will be a location angle. How long before Steve announces a new feature for the stores called (what else) "check in."

He said it's like Facebook or Twitter but for music, but that's just the opening-day positioning. It won't last.

Now the big question for the Scripting News community -- is there an API? Will developers get a hook into Ping? Will I be able to ping everyone when I advance a level in Angry Birds? (for example)

One more thing, great name, but they'll never register it as a trademark. Ping is a big word in this space. Long long before any of Apple's competitors were in the space.

Are you tuned into Apple TV?

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 16:51:52 GMT

I can't imagine there are many people who read this blog who are not tuned in, with Safari running on a Mac or iPhone or iPad, wondering what Uncle Steve is going to pull out of his hat.

http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/1009qpeijrfn/event

What's produced at hackathons?

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 16:14:42 GMT

I've never participated in a hackathon, so I can't tell whether they produce anything or not. I'm assuming that at least some of the readers of this blog have been to one or more.

What's it like?

What kind of software is produced?

Is any of it useful?

Were any commercial products hatched at hackathons? Were any of them successful?

My intuition says that they're pointless exercises. I have at times gone on retreats with the idea of emerging with something useful or marketable, but I have to say the big leaps in software that I've seen or taken part of, come with steady daily work, when you've built up a head of steam over weeks or months.

It seems to me that the hackathon idea is more a dream of investors or marketers, that they can get a bunch of programmers in a room to invent something they can make money with. But that's just my impression.

If you have a story of a hackathon, please tell it.

First ride of the new month -- it's a scorcha!

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 13:48:29 GMT

Scorcha is NY-ese for "hot!"

Yeah it's the hottest summer in history.

A climate-change denier adds "that we know of."

Yes, there is a conspiracy. Back in the late 1800s some liberal limp-wristed Obama-lovers wiped a whole decade off the record. Why? Because it was much hotter than this summer was going to be. They just knew it. And they did it to piss off the idiots of the 21st century. Glad we got to the bottom of that one.

Anyway....

10.84 miles. 56 minutes.

When it's this hot, even if it isn't a record, you slow down and take it easy.

Connecting DailyMile with CycleMeter

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 15:16:43 GMT

First a caveat, as far as I know DailyMile might take a CycleMeter KML file as input.

However, if it doesn't...

It should!

That's basically all I have to say.

A little detail.

When I go for a ride, when I reach the starting point, I get out my iPhone and reset CycleMeter. When I stop to rest, I hit the Stop button. When I resume the ride I hit continue. When I'm done, I hit Done. At that point it sends me an email with a link to Google Maps that opens a KML file it generates that contains all the info about my ride.

I just signed up for DailyMile, which seems to be a Twitter-like service for people who work out. People can follow you and you can follow others. And they post information about their workouts. Like me, people who exercise systematically love these gadgets and community systems, so why not work on the connection! I mean CycleMeter already goes to the trouble to output a standard format. DailyMile should accept that as input. And off we go!

BTW, here's what the XML inside a KML file looks like

KML stands for Keyhole Markup Language.

Early morning pre-heatwave bike ride

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 12:36:52 GMT

Got out real early today cause it's going to be another scorcher.

Even at 7:30AM it was in the 80s. But it was a great ride. 50 minutes rolling, 10.33 miles.

6-minute break at turnaround at 99th St. Little or no breeze.

The river was glassy.

PS: I joined dailymile.com. Wonder if they accept KML files as posts?

Hey Gruber, what about the users?

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 11:02:50 GMT

Gruber commented on my very brief post on Apple's boycott and how even a user can see it's not working. There's no dispute. You come across lots of stuff, movie trailers, corporate fact sheets, bike route maps, even press releases -- in Flash. You or I may not like it, but the theory that Apple's lack of support for Flash would force them to convert, well that isn't working. That's all I said.

Gruber, however, reduced it to the same old boring battle-to-the-death between two titans, in which us little guys are mere spectators. Sorry but that just isn't how I view it. My perspective is that of an iPad user. I like the damned thing. But I feel like a pawn, and I don't like that.

Of course I'll get more of the usual boilerplate moral bullshit from Flash haters saying whose fault this really is. I don't care.

Maybe if (hint hint) Gruber had comments on his blog, his minions wouldn't feel the need to vent on the sites he points to? Just a thought.

The coming Oauthcalypse

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 22:17:15 GMT

Tomorrow at 8AM Pacific, Twitter will do something that will befuddle many end-users.

http://blog.twitter.com/2010/08/twitter-applications-and-oauth.html

I can't think of a precedent, a time when a platform vendor deliberately broke so much application software. It's possible that it's happened and I don't remember, but I find it hard to believe that I would not have heard of it. So much app breakage would surely make a loud sound!

Twitter says it will mean improved security.

I think it means for sure fewer user-hours spent with apps not developed by Twitter, Inc.

Some of my apps will die tomorrow. For example, FriendsOfDave and dwcodeupdates. It probably won't be worth it to convert these little apps to use OAuth. It will impact very few people, mostly me. (FOD is like a quick aggregator for people whose updates I never want to miss. Codeupdates helps me confirm that updates made it through the OPML Editor's code management system. Neither are mission-critical, just nice-to-have.)

I'm sure tomorrow I'll learn of other Twitter-related apps that will not be updated. If you learn of any feel free to post a comment here.

Dear Apple, re your boycott of Flash

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 07:16:04 GMT

As an iPad user I can tell you without a doubt, it isn't working.

I see new Flash content several times every day when I catch up on the news with my iPad. This isn't stuff that's going away, it's new stuff that creative people are publishing. New stuff, not legacy stuff.

In other words, they know we can't see it on the iPad and they went ahead anyway.

Sorry.

The Final Jeopardy answer is...

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 07:11:55 GMT

He was shot after listening to this song.

http://ou.rs/5.mp3

Still a virgin?

Sun, 29 Aug 2010 23:16:52 GMT

Breaking Bad -- Oh So Good!

Sun, 29 Aug 2010 15:31:03 GMT

When I wrote a positive review of The Big C, a number of readers told me I should check out Breaking Bad, for a more interesting take on a TV series written around the death of its main character. So I did. I've now watched all three seasons of the show, and while some of it was very hard to watch (how could the characters be that stupid or mean), the last season was terrific. Right up there with The Wire for artfulness and acting. All the characters are interesting, none of them are simple or one-dimensional. The music is great, and the New Mexico desert scenery beautiful. And the last season ends with a real cliff-hanger. Did Jesse do it or not? (I think not.)

If you're reading on the home page or in the feed, click through to the story page on the web for a theory about what comes next, and don't click on the little plus sign if you don't want to see spoilers.

Sunday pre-breakfast ride

Sun, 29 Aug 2010 14:02:00 GMT

First, it's probably not a good idea to ride before eating, but I didn't want to wait because I figured it would get pretty busy on the trails today as it was yesterday. But about 1/2 hour into the ride I started feeling unusually depleted. Who knows what the reason is, but I think I'll pack some nuts or candy for future rides.

Even so, it was a fast ride. 13.4 miles, 1 hour 6 minutes.

Once again I checked-in at the turnaround point on Facebook.

Thinking about getting an iPhone 4 mount for the bike.

Also thinking about a heart-rate monitor. They have iPhone apps that use the microphone to measure heart-rate. Wouldn't it be cool if they had one built into Cyclemeter? Then the map could include heart-rate data.

What they say about age is true

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 21:13:43 GMT

I read this piece on TechCrunch about ageism in tech and nodded my head all the way through.

Facing facts, I've been sidelined in tech for quite a number of years. No one offers me a place in new startups. When I was younger things were a lot different.

If I can't get into the game, I can't imagine there's much chance for most other people in their 50's to play a role. Which is really fucked up. It's probably the reason why we keep going around in the same loops over and over, because we chuck our experience, wholesale, every ten years or so.

And if you think there's much difference between JavaScript and C, you're dreaming. Or between JSON and XML or plain text files. These are gratuitous reinventions. Yes there have been some improvements. I wouldn't know how to build a Facebook server farm. But they could learn a few things about aggregators from work of mine years ago that they've never seen. Or outliners. Or CMSes. Or object databases.

If you invest in tech companies, try bringing in some tech experience. It might push your comfort level. It also might make you much more competitive.

Today's ride -- Can't get no respec!

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 20:30:51 GMT

Today's ride was in prime time, and everyone was out on bikes, rollerblades, boards, walking, running, you name it.

And everyone was hogging every inch of the road, including my bits of the road. Lots of near-misses, cars driving in the bike lanes, and people walking and riding four a-breast. Tomorrow's ride will be at dawn. Let's see if I can get some of the road for myself.

Even with all the michegas, I did some serious mileage. Feeling really strong and good. It's hot weather, but heat is very good for riding. And the sun was shining in a very California way, and the Hudson was shimmering and humming with kayakers, the Circle Line, helicopters, shipping and recreational traffic.

The map. 10.46 miles in 56 minutes. Turnaround at 99th.

Not too many more weekends like this before it gets collllld.

PS: There should be a Hacker News for biking.

Today's ride -- piece of cake

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 18:27:18 GMT

The map. 51 minutes. 9.5 miles.

Light wind, made it up to the turnaround point in 25 minutes, non-stop. Short rest. Came back non-stop. I'm going to need a longer ride tomorrow, this one is too easy. Maybe up to 125th and back.

New riding shorts. These are much more sheer, they feel wicked!

New practice: Check-in on Facebook at the turnaround point.

If you're in NY today, get outside. It's one of the 10 nicest-weather days of the year, for sure.

A note about Diaspora

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 16:28:43 GMT

There's been another round of hype over Diaspora.

These guys are seriously good at the tease.

Also they're from NYU, and that's pretty amazing, in a Forrest Gump way. They started something near and dear to my heart, about three blocks from 20 Cooper Square.

The press is staying remarkably centered on the most recent announcement as if saying that they're unsure of what Diaspora is (they haven't actually said, not even a screen shot of the final product) but they're willing to wait until they get back from Burning Man to decide if it really is the open Facebook-replacement they set out to make. With the shipdate looming so close, they're going on vacation. Now that's confidence! (Or hubris, or inexperience.)

Now while it's possible for four talented computer scientists, in a summer, to make a piece of software that's so compelling and attention-grabbing, not just in theory but in actual use -- it's also far from likely.

More likely is that they buy into the view of engineering from inside academia where they confuse student projects with working systems that can survive a real-world test. For example, look at my review of Pogoplug, earlier today. I'm sure their engineers are brilliant, like the Diaspora people are. Yet when the software arrived at my desktop, nothing happened. No functionality. Welcome to the user's desktop where complicated technology very often doesn't work.

It's unfortunate that the expectations have been set so high for this project. It's unfortunate for the developers, but more for the users and other developers, who have been plugging away at this problem for years without the benefit of the attention that the Diaspora folks have gotten. Now if they fail to achieve the high expectations they've accepted, and even encouraged, they're going to take a lot of the hope with them. That's what's going to really suck.

More likely, around the time Diaspora ships, or shortly after, but certainly before the end of the year, Google will announce their open social network. That's what people will talk about. That, and the next rollouts from Zuck and Company. The amazing story of the $200,000 grant will fade, as will the glory, and perhaps the chances for creating something open that lives outside the walls of corporate Silicon Valley.

Playing with Pogoplug

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 15:10:21 GMT

I wrote a post about Pogoplug last week and they offered to send me one for free, and it arrived yesterday.

I set it up this morning, and now am trying to use it.

I downloaded and installed the Mac software, assuming that a folder would appear on my desktop somewhere with the name Pogoplug or something like that (maybe the name of the hard drive attached to the device), but there's no folder evident. Tried rebooting.

Noticed that there's now something called MacFUSE in my Preferences app. Not sure if this was there before or if Pogoplug installed it.

Tried reading the FAQ and looked in the Help system, but nothing was immediately obvious.

Tried installing the software again, still nothing.

Looked at the web interface, but was pretty horrified. No way, after using Dropbox, am I using something so hard to look at.

There is an API. Plan to check into that.

Mashups of the Mona Lisa

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 10:55:07 GMT

I wanted to grab a picture of the Mona Lisa so I searched for it.

http://google.com/images?q=mona+lisa

There are all these mashups of the painting, but where's the original?

It's at the center of something, everyone's talking about it, visually, but it's hard to know which is the original and which is the mashup.

links.scripting.com update

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 23:01:16 GMT

Part of me thinks links.scripting.com should be on the home page.

It's a damn fine little site, that's been going since April last year, but only got rendered for the first time a couple of days ago.

Wonder what other little gems are sitting out there undiscovered!

BTW, it now updates shortly after I post a new link to Twitter.

And there's an RSS feed you can subscribe to.

Still diggin!

Another boring ride (but that's exciting)

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 16:08:57 GMT

I'm afraid my ride diary is going to be pretty boring most of the time, now that I've found my standard ride.

1. Get on the Hudson River Greenway heading north.

2. Ride nonstop to 94th St, just after the over-water stretech.

3. Get off the bike and sit on a bench, watch the world go by, take a photo or video.

4. Get on the Hudson River Greenway heading south.

5. Get off at 10th St and head home.

Roundtrip is 9.67 miles, it takes almost exactly 1 hour.

Looks like that's the daily ride.

Twitter let me opt-out of your suggestions

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 11:34:52 GMT

A few weeks ago Twitter added a section to their home page with recommendations of people and companies to follow. I've never really liked it, although I was willing to give it a try after it became clear it was algorithmic. But now that I've given it a try I'd like to opt out of it.

I find it distracting and tiring. The names don't change unless I click the X next to them, and I feel bad about that, because the people didn't do anything to get me to so dislike them. It's Twitter using their names, without their permission. I shudder at the thought of how many people are similarly irritated by my name in their right margin. Who is this Dave Winer guy and when will he stop begging for me to follow him. Thing is, I'm not begging, Twitter is doing the begging.

I'd prefer if they would leave me out of this whole thing, on both sides.

A simple setting that says I have enough followers so please no more recommendations. And another that says that I don't want to appear as an ad in someone else's right margin.

Please.